Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a spectrum of specific learning difficulties and is evident when accurate and/or fluent reading and writing skills, particularly phonological awareness, develop incompletely or with great difficulty. People with dyslexia can also develop compensatory strengths which can provide an opportunity to further advance their learning.
Early identification followed by a systematic and sustained process of highly individualized, skilled teaching primarily focused on written language, with specialist support, is critical to enable learners to participate in the full range of social, academic, and other learning opportunities across all areas of the curriculum.
Dowrick (2005) has a simple definition which states that SLD are “the difficulties experienced in learning to read, write, spell, or use numbers by people with intelligence apparently adequate for these tasks.” This makes it seem simple and it sums up the main idea.
Diagnosis & Misdiagnosis
Each individual student with dyslexia displays his or her own unique blend of symptoms.
Problems which may be noticed include: greater than usual difficulty with learning to read; Secondary social symptoms (such as frustration, anger, loss of motivation and poor self-esteem) can sometimes be noticed ahead of the underlying learning difficulties. “In fact, dyslexia is not a single problem or issue, but the name that is given to a certain common pattern.” (Marshall) Shaywitz (2003) emphasizes “history” in diagnosing dyslexia – family history and history of a student’s learning difficulties overtime.
The frustration, anxiety and tension associated with this may lead to even poorer skills in language and speech (Lavoie, 1989).
Difficulties vary between individuals but may include: • Difficulty learning new words or phrases. • “Forgetfulness” and confusion about word meanings. • Difficulty understanding multiple word meanings. • Difficulty with ambiguous or figurative language. • Difficulty understanding and using grammatical forms including tenses, singular/plural and verb forms. • Difficulty following instructions. • Committing social mistakes and “saying the wrong thing.” • May not fit in with peers and may be on the periphery of social groups. • Talks in “baby talk”. • Difficulty finding the right words to express him/herself. • Uses “filler” words frequently such as thing, junk and stuff. • Avoids conversations. • Tends to give brief one word answers or “yes/no/okay”. • May speak in incomplete sentences. • May appear to know more than he/she can express. • May become frustrated and even aggressive due to difficulty expressing needs and settling conflict verbally. • May show resistance to writing and produce little output (Eide & Eide, 2006).
